Our advance word of the generous hospitality of Argentines, and Buenos Aires residents (portenos, with a tilde over the "n") in particular, has been exceeded. One example: within 2 minutes of meeting one of our hosts, I mentioned I had just that day had my first malbec wine, a local specialty and that I loved it. He wrote out a lengthy list of good wineries, and offered to meet me on Sunday to take me to a supermarket to buy some to bring back (a better bargain than a wine store, he said) and to help me carry it back to the hotel. I declined, but was impressed.

More importantly, we have found intellectual soulmates on the importance of free markets, classic liberalism, stable institutions, and within that environment a respect for IP rights, or "el derecho de propiedad intelectual."

Today some of us will be blogging in real time on the conference. Right now, ESEADE's Martin Krause is using in an analogy for Argentina's ability to compete in the world market with its current approach to IP and its institutional stability to the Argentine soccer team's ability to compete globally -- no World Cup, maybe some minor tournament instead.